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Another day at Monroe
https://www.slantsix.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=48292		 Page 11 of 22
Author:  kesteb [ Sat Apr 27, 2019 12:59 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Another day at Monroe
I spent sometime recovering data off hard drives from some dead laptops. And guess what! I found more photos! What would have been nice, would have been the 3 years of spreadsheets of our races and when I was mapping advance curves. Oh well. I guess the professional systems engineer should have made backups...

So I spent some time updating the web site. It now has a more complete pictorial, that is in a rough cronicalogical order. It will also give the web crawllers something to do, and maybe others may find it interesting.

Enjoy.
Author:  kesteb [ Sun May 26, 2019 10:46 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Another day at Monroe
Happy Memorial Day weekend. Thanks to all that have severed.

I spent some time on the cars today. On the Dart, I finished up the move of the crank sensor from the accessory plate to the timing chain cover. This necessitated redrilling the crank trigger. For which I made a simple jig to support the dampner, so I could drill the new holes. A several hour job that took a couple of months to accomplish.

After I finished that up, I decided to take the radiator out of the Duster. This is the first time that I have touched the car since last year. The radiator leaks from a couple of hole on the front side. I have soldered up radiators before, so how hard can this be? Well, after futzing around for a while, I just confirmed what I discovered last year. This radiator is rotten. Even if I could solder up the holes, another would probably just develop at some inappropriate time in the future. Mr Bars would become my new best friend.

Which leads me to an observation. I have been scouring the usual places looking for some rims for the Duster. It currently has a set of 15x7 factory steel rims on the front. It was what I used to run on the back of the Dart. They worked perfectly on the Dart, but the offset is wrong for the Duster. 40 years ago the fix would be to cut off the lower front corner on the front fender. Measure back a 1/2" and cut a 45* line across. Boom your big tires can now turn without hitting the fender. Of course, 40 years ago you couldn't buy rims with the proper offset. Now you can.

The rear rims are 15x8 with the D shaped hole style. My wife bought these for my old '72 Dodge 1/2 ton, 30 years ago. I don't think the company that made the rims is even around anymore. But once again the offset is wrong. Also once again, 40 years ago, to but the big tires on, you would install a set of Hi-Jackers and pump them up. Now you can buy rims with the proper offset.

Oh, the offset on these rims is 3.5". Which used to be a "standard", because they were the right offset for a '65 Mustang.

The cost of rims is ridiculous. A set of 15 inch rims with the D shaped holes start at $75 a piece. A set of plain steel reproduction rims start at $110 each. The only redeeming quality is that you can get them with the right offset, which appears to be 4 1/4". With this offset, I can use p235x60 on the front and p255x60 on the back. This would give me a nice old school look. While some internet pundits think 15" rims are a waste of time. I really can't justify the cost of 17 and 18 inch rims.

Oh well, it is all academic until I get a new radiator. Make it run, then make it fast.
Author:  kesteb [ Sun Jun 09, 2019 8:08 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Another day at Monroe
Well, I spent some quality time with a sawzall today. Chopped up the supercharger intake. I made it wrong. So now if have six intake runners and six injector bungs.

More to come...
Author:  kesteb [ Wed Jun 26, 2019 9:18 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Another day at Monroe
Did you know that a F-Body radiator bolts into a '74 Duster and everything lines up. Including the fan shroud! All I need is a fitting for the transmission cooler lines and maybe replace the lower radiator hose. The Dart may loose its radiator and the Duster may be running shortly.

The fan spacer that I am using puts the fan 1/2" from the radiator in the Dart. There is over 2" more clearance with the Duster.
Author:  kesteb [ Sun Jul 07, 2019 6:36 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Another day at Monroe
The Darts radiator is firmly bolted into the Duster.

The lower radiator hose was trimmed an inch because it was rubbing on the k-member. I don't know how old this hose is. It had a spring inside, I haven't seen that in a long time. The upper hose also needed to be trimmed up. It leaked at the thermostat hosing and had a kink. About 2" on the thermostat side fixed both problems. A couple of gallons of antifreeze and the cooling system is ready.

Note to self. Replace all hoses, good enough for startup, but not long term usage.

Also started on the new intake for the Dart.
Author:  kesteb [ Tue Jul 16, 2019 10:33 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Another day at Monroe
I dropped a battery into the Duster so I can figure out the front turn signals. I cleaned up the battery terminals and bolted them down. Reached into the car and turned the key on. Nothing.

Pulled the battery out and took it down to the shed to but it on a charger. Hmm, battery is fully charged. Took the battery back up to the car and reinstalled. Turned key, still nothing. Sigh. A quick check of the fuses showed no blown ones. So now I get to trace wires to find the problem. Fun...

So I did a fluid check. Power steering, empty, I filled it up last year. Engine oil, full, looks new, recently changed. Oil filter looks new too. Transmission, still needs to be filled up. So what does a a904 use now days? I used to use TF3, I don't think that is available anymore.

Anyway, I went back and reread Reeds build thread. I see he changed out the power steering pump to fix a leak, guess what, still leaks. He mentions a leaky transmission and I see no mention of an oil change.

So more basic stuff to do.
Author:  emsvitil [ Wed Jul 17, 2019 3:03 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Another day at Monroe
Image
Author:  kesteb [ Wed Jul 17, 2019 8:17 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Another day at Monroe
Lucas, huh. I needed that stuff when I suffered from the dreaded British Sports Car disease. Mostly cured now, I still catch myself staring at rusted out MGB GTs. It is actually worse then Slant Sickness. At least a '65 Dart is practical.
Author:  slantzilla [ Wed Jul 17, 2019 11:04 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Another day at Monroe
Buddy of mine has his late father's '54 MG sitting in his garage. We went to a British car swap meet because he wanted to see about restoring it. It seems that to restore it would have been in the $30K area, and it would be worth $18K done. :shock:
Author:  Charrlie_S [ Thu Jul 18, 2019 3:30 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Another day at Monroe
Quote:
It seems that to restore it would have been in the $30K area, and it would be worth $18K done. :shock:
That sounds about normal for the car hobby. :shock:
Author:  kesteb [ Sun Jul 28, 2019 8:59 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Another day at Monroe
So I am burning some vacation time, and I decided to follow some wires. So down the rabbit hole I go, hopefully I won't bump into Alice or any white rabbits.

After some basic battery cable maintence, I was able to get the amp gauge to read a discharge when I turned the key on. But trying to start was a no-go. Hmmm, jumping the starter relay, and the engine turns over. Cool. So basic circuits are working.

When I was putting the wiring together last year, I didn't know where to plug the neutral safety switch in. The were 2 choices. I picked the one that interconnected to a little brown box on the passenger side of the firewall. 2 of the wires end at the starter relay. One is yellow/brown and the other is black. The black one would be "hot" with the key on. Turn the key, nothing.

Since that didn't work, I plugged it directly into the harness. I then removed the brown box and associated wiring. Tried the key and now the oil light comes on. Making progress? Who knows. At least Alice hasn't made a appearance yet.

This is a '74, the year of the dreaded "Seat Belt Interlock System". Does it still exist on this car. Why, yes it does. According to various internet postings, I should be able to override it by pushing the " button" on the override relay. And look there is the relay , and I push the "button" , still no start. So just how much of this system is still left in the car? The seats are gone, the seat belts are gone, just what did this thing interface too. According to other posting, it also monitored the door light switches.

So time to deinstall. Just where is everything located? The controller is located behind the instrument panel. You need to remove the instrument panel and drop the steering column. Wow, a '74 Duster has way more wiring then a '65 Dart. The controller was 2 connectors, one for inputs the other for outputs. The outputs also has wires for power.

The input loom runs over to the passenger side kick panel. To remove it, cut the wire wrap off and pull it out. There is a yellow wire that connects to the door light switches, snipe it close to the group solder joint. That's done.

This thing still has power. It was monitoring something, maybe just the door lights. Or maybe it finally died, who knows. Anyway, I snipped the wires at the connector. And I am tracking them down. The big red is power, sniped at the solder junction. The blue/white goes to the fuse box, sniped at the fuse junction. The pink one goes to the seatbelt light, removed. That leaves a big yellow, yellow/brown, and brown wire. There are also smaller black, black/white and a gray wire. So now we wonder thru the wiring loom to find where they go.

Oh, none of these circuits are in the downloadable wiring schematics. Must be the white rabbits...
Author:  slantzilla [ Mon Jul 29, 2019 8:59 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Another day at Monroe
If your neutral switch is the 3 pin type the wire from the center pin can run straight to the (-) blade on the starter relay. The outside 2 control your backup lights. :mrgreen:
Author:  Reed [ Mon Jul 29, 2019 10:46 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Another day at Monroe
Kesteb-

The wiring problem is really odd. The last time I fired that car up it had no wiring issues whatsoever. I removed the seatbelt interlock system very soon after my brother got the car. That was the only wiring modification that happened. Is the shift linkage adjusted properly to make the NSS make contact in park and neutral? I don't know what else it could be. I never got into the wiring other than removing that seatbelt interlock.

I thought I gave you the factory service manual on CD when you got the car?
Author:  Badvert65 [ Mon Jul 29, 2019 7:40 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Another day at Monroe
You can bypass the shift interlock by simply grounding the terminal. This would be just to isolate that as the problem. If it still doesn't start, then the problem isn't likely the transmission connection.
Jus sayin....
Author:  kesteb [ Mon Jul 29, 2019 7:50 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Another day at Monroe
Slantzilla, that is what the schematics show. The wiring harness is doing something else.

Reed, I don't recall a CD, thats not a problem. The unit may have died or a door switch stopped working. Who knows, the stuff will be removed and problem solved. I'll just make it political stand against the "MAN".
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